Not Wisely But Too Well
by Shakespeare's Mistress
Summary: Of all the words Kerry often used to describe Lawson Blake - and there were a great many, few of which were flattering - immature had never been one of them.


"Leon, what the hell are they doing?"

The intelligence operator jumped. He hadn't heard Kerry walk up behind him. It was unnerving, he thought, the way that woman could sneak up on you even when she was wearing heels.

"Well, I'm not _completely_ sure, but if I had to hazard a guess I'd probably go with 'saving a woman's life.'"

"Don't be a smartarse."

She leaned over his shoulder, eyes fixed on the big screen.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but it looks like Senior Sergeant Blake is about to climb down to that ledge…without safety gear."

After a few moments of silence, during which they both watched Lawson prepare to do exactly that, Kerry tapped the back of Leon's chair.

"Well?"

Leon leaned back a little (Kerry's hair was tickling his nose) and said,

"What do you mean, 'well'? I agree with you."

"What?"

"You said, 'correct me if I'm wrong'. I think you're right; ergo, no correction."

Her eyes flashed, and he winced. He'd expected a reaction, but she seemed to have skipped 'exasperated' and gone from mild to mad as hell in less than thirty seconds.

"Leon, for god's sake -"

She cut herself off. On screen, the feed from Michael's camera showed Lawson handing Stella his vest. His mouth was moving.

"Leon…"

"Patching audio through to speakers."

Static, then Lawson's voice;

"- I'm on that ledge, Michael, toss me the rope. Stella, keep her talking."

In the ops room, Kerry had picked up her headset.

"Lawson, I _really_ hope you're not about to do what I think you're about to do."

Kerry glanced up at the feed from Stella's camera, which showed a terrified young woman clinging to the cliff face, less than a metre above the ledge. She obviously didn't have the footholds, or the nerve, to make her way down that bit further.

"Please!" She was sobbing, her voice just this side of panicked. "Please, hurry! I think I'm slipping!"

"Just stay calm, I'm coming down to get you."

Lawson lowered himself over the edge of the cliff. Kerry's eyes darted between his feed, which showed nothing but a close-up of the cliff face, and Michael's.

"Please help me!"

"Miranda…it's Miranda, right? I'm coming down now."

How could he sound so calm? Kerry paced the ops room, never taking her eyes from the screens, chewing her thumbnail until she realised what she was doing and shoved both hands in her pockets.

"Okay Miranda, I'm climbing down past you so I can stand on the ledge. Then my team are going to lower some gear down, I'll attach it to my belt, then they'll pull us both up, all right?"

"O-okay."

"Just don't move, and don't let go. I'll get you, I promise."

* *

He was tired, hungry and in desperate need of a shower, and had been hoping to at least rectify the latter situation before the unofficial debrief he knew he was in for. Radio contact from Kerry had been conspicuously absent during the drive back into the city; in fact, he hadn't heard her voice since she'd asked Shannon to ride in the ambulance with Miranda.

The purposeful click of heels on concrete was a sure sign she meant business. Michael, Dom and Stella vanished so fast Lawson could almost see three puffs of smoke, and wondered briefly if it was an ability they'd always possessed or one they'd learned in the past year. Josh hesitated, but Lawson shook his head.

"I'll take this one, mate. Good work today, yeah?"

Kerry watched Josh out of sight before turning on him.

"Christ, Lawson! What the hell were you thinking? You both could have gone over the edge! It's sheer luck that I'm not on the phone right now explaining to the Deputy Commissioner that one of my best officers and a civilian are splattered all over Werribee Gorge because you couldn't take three minutes to hook yourself up to a safety line. I'd expect this kind of shit from Josh, but not from you!"

She stopped for breath, running a trembling hand through her hair. Lawson, who didn't miss much, bit back a sharp retort and turned to leave instead.

Kerry sighed.

"Look, I'm not saying we didn't reach the best possible outcome. I'm not even going to deny that if you hadn't done what you did, that woman might have fallen before you reached her. I'm just sick to death of your team playing it fast and loose with SOP!"

He paused. "I didn't hear you raising any objections in the storage room last night. Was that standard operating procedure, Inspector?"

Of all the words Kerry often used to describe Lawson Blake (and there were a great many, few of which were flattering) immature had never been one of them.

"You're a fucking child, do you know that?" she yelled after him.

He raised a hand – in acknowledgement or dismissal, she wasn't sure – and sauntered on without so much as a backward glance.

_Sauntered._ She hadn't even known he was capable.

"Shit."


End file.
